Langston Hughes Handout Reanna Rowe

Kandace Keirns

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was born into poverty and his parents later separated. His father immigrated to Mexico where Hughes would later visit. In Mexico he received a matriarchal, church-going education and eventually made his way to New York City in 1921. There he enrolled in Columbia University, where he wrote his first verse and began to publish in The Crisis, a historic magazine of the N.A.A.C.P. When Langston Hughes could no longer attend college he moved to Harlem, New York and surrounded himself with very prominent figures like W.E.B. DuBois.

Hughes is one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazzy poetry. Hughes is best known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes was a well-known poet, novelist, columnist, playwright and leading social activist during the 20^th century. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays and children’s books; he argued passionately for human equality, condemned racism and injustice and celebrated African American culture, humor and spirituality.

Awards: The Spingarn Medal, The Quill Award for Poetry and The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

Playwrights: Mule Bone and Jerico-Jim Crow

Novels: Not Without Laughter in 1903, Thank you, m’am in 1958, The Ways of White Folks and The Big Sea in 1940, Tambourines to Glory, his autobiography The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander.

Poems-The Weary Blues, The Negro Mother, The Dream Keeper, and Montage of a Dream Deferred.

Citations:

“America’s Story.” Meet Amazing Americans, Writer and Artists, Langston Hughes. Library of Congress. Web. 12 September 2013. <http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/hughes/aa_hughes_subj.html>.

Hampson, Thomas “I Hear America Singing.” James Langston Hughes. PBS. Web. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/hughes.html>.

Langston Hughes - I, Too. Digital image. YouTube. YouTube, 08 Aug. 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCWngPt-L4>

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 9: Langston Hughes (1902-1967)." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project. N.p., 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. < http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/hughes.html>